


Into The Wild

by Kimmy



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Bad Weather, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Hurt Jace Wayland, I Love You, Love Confessions, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Secret Identity, Secrets, Secrets Revealed, Sharing Body Heat, Short & Sweet, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 03:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13825632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimmy/pseuds/Kimmy
Summary: Bat asks Jace out for a camping trip, but Jace is a bit afraid of what it may mean. In the end, the trip ends up differently than either of them expected...





	Into The Wild

**Author's Note:**

> This started with the idea of sharing body heat with a wolf due to be being snowed in. It ended with me forgetting to add snow.

“You’re fidgety.”

“I’m not.”

“You’ve also just came back, having been sneaking around and  _ you’re avoiding me _ .” 

Alec sent Jace a poignant glare, putting his feet in the door to prevent Jace from closing the door. The blonde stared at the foot, as if considering if physically kicking Alec out was worth it, but eventually he sighed in resignation and let his brother enter after him.

Alec closed the door and lifted an eyebrow at Jace, who managed to already plop down on the bed and appeared to be screaming into his pillow.

“Okay, what is it?”

Jace lifted his head, facing Alec who lay down next to him.

“My brother is invading my privacy.”

He said in a deadpan serious tone, but the fact he shifted to snuggle up to Alec wasn’t helping his case. Alec chuckled.

“Fine, I can go.”

He pretended to get up but Jace caught him in a death grip.

“Noooo. Fine, it’s…”

Jace stopped, as if rethinking his words, as if unsure if he could really say it. He took a deep breath and tensed before finally blurting out.

“I have a boyfriend.”

Alec frowned. Granted, it was a bit of a surprise but after everything that happened in the past year, he wasn’t quite sure why this was something Jace would hide from him.

“Okay. That sounds good. So what’s the problem?”

Jace shifted uncomfortably, as if trying to wiggle out of answering, before whispering into Alec’s chest, unwilling to meet his eyes.

“He’s a mundie.”

“Ah.” Alec sighed, realizing what the deal was.

“He’d cute. And caring. And funny and loving and he makes me feel so…  _ normal _ . And I was out on a date just now, and he asked me out for a romantic hiking trip. And I cannot just tell him my job is saving the world so I don’t get days off and it kinda feels like this may be something… important and maybe he wants this to be, like, a shifting point?”

He looked at Alec with pleading eyes.

“I think he wants us to be more… serious. Hell,  _ I _ want us to be more serious. But he’s a  _ mundie _ ! Aleeeec, what do I do?”

Alec hummed, smiling down at Jace.

“Okay, I tell you what you do. You go to The Head of The Institute to grant you a few days off, you go camping with your boy, you try to make this a chance to maybe be just honest with him… or not.” He added after Jace sent him a murderous glare. “And in the end, you just forget about Shadowhunting for a few days. Some rest will do you good. And if something actually happens, you can send me a distress signal through the bond.”

Jace huffed, shaking his head but he couldn’t quite stop the small smile.

“Is that an order? Because I was never good at following those.”

Alec hit him over the head.

“I think you’ll do just fine with this one.”

***

That was how Jace found himself in the mountains, sleeping in a tent, cuddled up next to Bat after a day of hiking, trying to not admit to himself that Alec was right. He didn’t manage to tell his boyfriend the truth yet, and he wasn’t quite sure if he would be able to do this on the trip, but he was immensely glad he had come. 

Bat was ridiculously excited and happy to have dragged Jace out, and wandering around nature without seraph blades and with just a backpack instead of strangely relaxing. 

“I’m glad you came after all.”

Jace turned to look at Bat who clearly wasn’t asleep like Jace assumed. He smiled at him in the darkness.

“I’m glad too. You know, in the end, Alec convinced me.”

“Your brother?”

“Yeah. He’s been insufferable ever since he got a boyfriend of his own. He’s suddenly an expert in relationships.”

“Well, he did give you good advice.”

Bat laughed and he leaned in to kiss Jace. The blonde practically melted into the kiss, unable to believe he was lucky enough to call this incredible man his.

“I love you.” 

He whispered, and the words seemed so loud in the silence of the night, spoken for the first time. Bat just smiled, hugging Jace closer.

“I love you too. Sleep now.”

***

“It’s getting cloudy.”

Jace looked up at the sky, missing the sun that followed them during the morning hike.

“Just hope it doesn’t start to rain. I don’t  _ get _ it, I checked the forecast and it was supposed to be brilliant weather.”

“Guess you cannot always trust the weather forecast.” Jace stopped, looking at the stream -- more of a river -- ahead of them. “What is this?”

“I…” Bat was staring at the obstacle and the map he was holding in confusion. “I don’t get it. This is the trail. There’s supposed to be a bridge here, the  _ only _ bridge. We have to cross here! It’s  _ a lot _ closer to the exit from the park than turning around, we cannot go back.”

Jace frowned, thinking what to do.

“Okay, do… We have to cross, you said so yourself. Give me your backpack, grab the shoes and into the water. We don’t have another option, if we go back and it starts to rain we will be fucked, there is nowhere to even hide from the rain on that part of the trail.”

Bat nodded, looking at the sky with worry, taking off his shoes and socks and rolling up the trousers. He took a tentative step into the water and shivered.

“You okay?”

“It’s just cold, but not too deep. I think I can make it.”

He kept the shoes tied with the laces around his neck and slowly made his way through the stream, using the rocks as a path. He was visibly relieved and clearly cold once he stepped out. By now, Jace was already waiting with his feet bare.

“Okay, I’ll throw you the backpacks!”

Bat nodded and prepared himself, easily catching his own backpack when Jace threw it. The Shadowhunter grabbed his own pack then, biting his lip when he realized it was heavier. Hurling it across the river would be more difficult, but he couldn’t cross with it or he would lose balance.

Praying that Bat caught it, the man already waiting for the load with outstretched hands, be focused and threw it.

It was a tiny miscalculation. The backpack missed Bat by centimeters. It fell into the water with a loud splash, and Jace felt his heart drop. He could see Bat try to take it out, but the backpack was too far, in the middle of the stream, moved by the current and hanging on by one of the straps stuck between the rocks.

Jace could leave it, like Bat kept shouting for him to do, and go the safer path that his boyfriend had taken. Or he could take the more dangerous path that would allow him to retrieve the backpack.

The backpack, where his stele was.

“I’m sorry!”

He shouted across at Bat and went into the deeper, more dangerous water. He chose his steps carefully, holding his shoes in one hand, the other outstretched so he could catch himself if something happened. 

He was so close to the backpack, he could touch it…

He screamed, slipping on a rock, his shoes flying out and disappearing with the current that took the now-freed backpack. He ended up in teh ice cold water, his head killing him where he was quite sure he hit it. 

Bat didn’t care about the danger, he ended up walking back into the water and helping Jace crawl out on the other side, laying down and panting.

“You’re bleeding.”

Bat sounded frantic, and when Jace touched his hair he realized it was true. He groaned, mentally yelling at himself in what sounded suspiciously like Alec’s voice, and he sat up.

“Just please tell me we are close to some shelter.”

And then they heard it. A thunder disrupted the silence and first drops fell.

“Fuck.” Jace half wondered if he ever heard Bat curse before. “It’s still over an hour but there is cave 5 minutes from here, so I guess…”

“Lead on.”

Jace couldn’t care less right now. He was just cold. So incredibly cold, it was hard to focus on anything else. He wondered if he should let Alec know through the bond. He could still control  _ that _ connection without a stele. But Alec would be busy, and Jace, Jace wasn’t that bad, was he?

The Cave was further than it seemed and the storm closer. They were soaked by the time they reached the cave and the contents of Bat’s backpack have proven useless.

Jace was only half conscious, and by now realized it would be stupid not to, so he sent Alec a call for help through teh parabatai bond.

Still, he was painfully aware, as Bat stripped of his coat and the rest of his clothing, that was the only dry thing they had left, that their situation was quite pathetic.

“Bat, stop.” He tried to protest weakly when his boyfriend undressed him, putting his own, dry shirt around him, but there was little he could do. Bat didn’t just look worried. He looked… anxious, but determined.

“Jace, you are in a bad state and I  _ need  _ to warm you up so just… Don’t freak out, okay? I’m going to keep you safe. I’m going to keep you warm and the storm will pass and we will go back and everything will be okay,  _ I promise _ .”

And at first, Jace was confused by the words but then he watched Bat strip naked and turn into a wolf and as the animal draped itself over Jace, warm and soft and comforting, he laughed.

“You’re a werewolf. Of course you’re a werewolf. By the Angel.”

The wolf’s eyes turned on his and Jace could practically feel the questions coming but stubbornly keeping Jace warm, Bat wouldn’t shift to ask them. The blonde hugged his furry boyfriend close, allowing himself to accept the warmth of the wolf’s huge body and he started talking.

Because after all, he planned to tell Bat on the trip, didn’t he?

And he didn’t imagine that Bat would be a werewolf, would understand. Didn’t imagine himself with hypothermia and bleeding head. But it was as good time as any, wasn’t it?

“I’m a Shadowhunter.”

If wolves could gasp, that would be what the sound Bat made would be described as.

“That’s why I didn’t want to go on this trip. I was afraid of what this means, afraid that we are getting… serious. And I wanted to be serious. I wanted to tell you that I love you because Angel knows, I do, so much. But I had no idea how I can lead you on when you are a mundane and I have this secret…”

Suddenly Bat was shifted, naked in Jace’s lap and wide-eyed.

“Wait. Your stele! You have that healing rune, don’t you, for your head…”

“Bat, my stele was in the backpack.”

Jace could see the realization on Bat’s face. The sinking reality of why Jace wanted the backpack so badly. The boy just let out a soft sigh and shifted back, curling around Jace.

“It’s alright. I have a parabatai. He will feel that we need help through the bond. His boyfriend is a warlock so they will track us and portal over in no time. Alec just needs to find Magnus…”

Slowly, despite a wolf trying to lick his face and wake him up, Jace started to drift off. His head must have been worse than they hoped but there was nothing Bat could do but stay shifted, keeping him warm. The backpack was soaked and there was nothing useful in it, and Bat had absolutely no medical skills.

He just prayed that Jace’s parabatai was indeed coming.

***

After he got a distress call, Alec was frantic with worry. So once he finally got to Magnus, after the warlock was finished with a client, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect when he stepped out from the portal but Jace unconscious, hair caked with blood and a wolf cuddled up to him… certainly wasn’t it.

The wolf growled at him, shifting and stepping in front of him. The man was young, latino and frankly a twink, but his protectiveness was precious.

“Who are you?”

“It’s alright.” Alec lifted his hands in the air, and Magnus did the same next to him. “I’m Jace’s brother.”

That seemed to calm the boy - Bat, Jace mentioned his name was Bat - slightly but he stayed close to Jace, although he decided to put his jeans on.

“Alec?”

“Yeah. I take it you’re the boyfriend.” 

Alec stepped back, allowing Magnus to work his magic on Jace. Bat almost growled but he allowed teh warlock to heal the blonde.

“Yeah. Why are you looking at me so strange? Didn’t he tell you about me? I know he did.”

“He did, he just said you were a mundie.”

Bat huffed.

“Well, it’s not like he was any more forward about being a Nephil. Is he gonna be alright?” He turned to Magnus, voice layered with worry.

“He’ll be fine. The head cut was just a minor inconvenience. I think that what the two of you need most now is some warmth and you’re gonna be fine.”

Magnus stepped back and Alec moved to pick Jace up but Bat intercepted him, picking the blonde easily, bridal style. Clearly he was stronger than he looked, and Alec had to admit he was impressed. 

They ended up going back to the Institute and later that evening, when Alec knocked on Jace’s door and opened them to peak in, he found Jace sprawled in front of a fireplace, hand dragging through the fur of a wolf asleep on him.

He gave Alec a shy smile that his parabatai returned in teh earnest, locking the door behind himself. Now that they were dry and warm, those two deserved a while to  _ actually _ rest.

 

**Author's Note:**

> As always, unedited. All mistakes are a result of my laziness.  
> Find me on Tumblr @kimmyhunter and leave a prompt or yell at me about Shadowhunters, Vampire Academy or Pentatonix.


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